IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v262y2017i3p981-995.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization methods for the Train Unit Shunting Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Haahr, Jørgen Thorlund
  • Lusby, Richard M.
  • Wagenaar, Joris Camiel

Abstract

We consider the Train Unit Shunting Problem, an important planning problem for passenger railway operators. This problem entails assigning train units from shunting yards to scheduled train services in such a way that the resulting operations are without conflicts. The problem arises at every shunting yard in the railway network and involves matching train units to arriving and departing train services as well as assigning the selected matchings to appropriate shunting yard tracks. We present an extensive comparison benchmark of multiple solution approaches for this problem, some of which are novel. In particular, we develop a constraint programming formulation, a column generation approach, and a randomized greedy heuristic. We compare and benchmark these approaches with two existing methods, a mixed integer linear program and a two-stage heuristic. The benchmark contains multiple real-life instances provided by the Danish State Railways (DSB) and Netherlands Railways (NS). The results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the considered approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Haahr, Jørgen Thorlund & Lusby, Richard M. & Wagenaar, Joris Camiel, 2017. "Optimization methods for the Train Unit Shunting Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(3), pages 981-995.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:262:y:2017:i:3:p:981-995
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2017.03.068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221717302990
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.03.068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Freling & Ramon M. Lentink & Leo G. Kroon & Dennis Huisman, 2005. "Shunting of Passenger Train Units in a Railway Station," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(2), pages 261-272, May.
    2. Leo G. Kroon & Ramon M. Lentink & Alexander Schrijver, 2008. "Shunting of Passenger Train Units: An Integrated Approach," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 436-449, November.
    3. Fioole, Pieter-Jan & Kroon, Leo & Maroti, Gabor & Schrijver, Alexander, 2006. "A rolling stock circulation model for combining and splitting of passenger trains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(2), pages 1281-1297, October.
    4. Haahr, Jørgen & Lusby, Richard M., 2017. "Integrating rolling stock scheduling with train unit shunting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 452-468.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Dian & D’Ariano, Andrea & Zhao, Jun & Zhong, Qingwei & Peng, Qiyuan, 2022. "Integrated rolling stock deadhead routing and timetabling in urban rail transit lines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 526-559.
    2. Zhou, Housheng & Qi, Jianguo & Yang, Lixing & Shi, Jungang & Pan, Hanchuan & Gao, Yuan, 2022. "Joint optimization of train timetabling and rolling stock circulation planning: A novel flexible train composition mode," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 352-385.
    3. Yinggui Zhang & Ruihua Hu & Qiongfang Zeng & Yuhang Wang & Ya Liu & Shan Huang, 2023. "Optimal Train Platforming with Shunting Operations for Multidirectional Passenger Stations: A Case Study of Guangzhou Station," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haahr, Jørgen & Lusby, Richard M., 2017. "Integrating rolling stock scheduling with train unit shunting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 452-468.
    2. Li Lei & Raymond S K Kwan & Zhiyuan Lin & Pedro J Copado-Mendez, 2022. "Resolution of coupling order and station level constraints in train unit scheduling," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 27-61, March.
    3. Haahr, J.T. & Lusby, R.M. & Wagenaar, J.C., 2015. "A Comparison of Optimization Methods for Solving the Depot Matching and Parking Problem," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2015-013-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    4. Christian Artigues & Eric Bourreau & Vincent Jost & Safia Kedad-Sidhoum & François Ramond, 2018. "Trains do not vanish: the ROADEF/EURO challenge 2014," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 271(2), pages 1091-1105, December.
    5. Lin, Zhiyuan & Kwan, Raymond S.K., 2016. "A branch-and-price approach for solving the train unit scheduling problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 97-120.
    6. Jiaxi Wang & Manfred Gronalt & Yan Sun, 2017. "A two-stage approach to the depot shunting driver assignment problem with workload balance considerations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Budai-Balke, G. & Maróti, G. & Dekker, R. & Huisman, D. & Kroon, L.G., 2007. "Re-scheduling in railways: the rolling stock balancing problem," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2007-21, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    8. Nils Boysen & Malte Fliedner & Florian Jaehn & Erwin Pesch, 2013. "A Survey on Container Processing in Railway Yards," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 312-329, August.
    9. Zhiyuan Lin & Eva Barrena & Raymond S. K. Kwan, 2017. "Train unit scheduling guided by historic capacity provisions and passenger count surveys," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 137-154, July.
    10. Nielsen, Lars Kjær & Kroon, Leo & Maróti, Gábor, 2012. "A rolling horizon approach for disruption management of railway rolling stock," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(2), pages 496-509.
    11. Valentina Cacchiani & Alberto Caprara & Paolo Toth, 2019. "An Effective Peak Period Heuristic for Railway Rolling Stock Planning," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(3), pages 746-762, May.
    12. Gao, Yuan & Xia, Jun & D’Ariano, Andrea & Yang, Lixing, 2022. "Weekly rolling stock planning in Chinese high-speed rail networks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 295-322.
    13. Jia Feng & Guowei Li & Yuxin Shi & Zhengzhong Li & Shanshan Liu, 2022. "Urban Rail Transit Rolling Stock Scheduling Optimization with Shared Depot," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    14. Boysen, Nils & Fliedner, Malte & Jaehn, Florian & Pesch, Erwin, 2012. "Shunting yard operations: Theoretical aspects and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 1-14.
    15. Hoogervorst, R. & Dollevoet, T.A.B. & Maróti, G. & Huisman, D., 2018. "Reducing Passenger Delays by Rolling Stock Rescheduling," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI2018-29, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    16. Canca, David & Barrena, Eva, 2018. "The integrated rolling stock circulation and depot location problem in railway rapid transit systems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 115-138.
    17. Andrea D'Ariano & Francesco Corman & Dario Pacciarelli & Marco Pranzo, 2008. "Reordering and Local Rerouting Strategies to Manage Train Traffic in Real Time," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 405-419, November.
    18. Lin, Boliang & Zhao, Yinan, 2021. "Synchronized optimization of EMU train assignment and second-level preventive maintenance scheduling," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    19. Ruf, Moritz & Cordeau, Jean-François, 2021. "Adaptive large neighborhood search for integrated planning in railroad classification yards," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 26-51.
    20. Haahr, J.T. & Wagenaar, J.C. & Veelenturf, L.P. & Kroon, L.G., 2015. "A Comparison of Two Exact Methods for Passenger Railway Rolling Stock (Re)Scheduling," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2015-007-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:262:y:2017:i:3:p:981-995. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.